TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. —
The Air Drive Sustainment Heart wants a expertise pool as giant as potential to fill each present and future workforce necessities, and college students at Langston College are in high-demand for profession alternatives upon commencement.
A ground-breaking settlement was brokered on Sept. 25 when the interim president of Langston College and the commander of Air Drive Sustainment Heart signed official paperwork establishing an academic partnership settlement between the 2 entities.
Agreements like this one have been in existence inside AFSC since 2019, however centered on college students finding out Science, Expertise, Engineering and Math, or STEM, fields. This settlement and its accompanying memorandum of understanding broadens the main focus space into non-STEM associated areas of examine in addition to STEM associated fields.
“That is the first-of-its-kind hybrid partnership the place we’re increasing that,” Lt. Gen. Stacey Hawkins, AFSC commander, mentioned.
The Langston settlement consists of majors in enterprise, provide chain administration, set up administration resembling environmental science and challenge administration.
“This enables us to solid a web to draw potential staff to Tinker Air Drive Base as an possibility to start out their careers,” he mentioned.
Dr. Ruth Ray Jackson, Langston College interim president, mentioned the settlement will assist the college obtain their aim of making extra alternatives for college students.
“We’re excited,” she mentioned. “We all know the potential is boundless and we all know that right now is barely the start of a really mutually useful and robust relationship.”
A number of Langston alumni who’re staff of Tinker Air Drive Base attended the signing, a lot of whom started their careers at Tinker as interns beneath earlier packages.
“We’re right here right now to permit folks to observe in your footsteps,” Jackson advised the gang. “And to have the choice to see Langston as a pathway to stay in Oklahoma, have fulfilling careers and gainful employment – issues that may assist them not solely as people however change the trajectory of their households.”
This system will enable Langston college students to take part in internships inside AFSC and ultimately, Hawkins mentioned, collaborate with the college to assist form curricula centered on the capabilities and experience wanted at Tinker Air Drive Base.
“This has been a years-long effort began largely by Langston college alumni who work right here at Tinker,” Hawkins mentioned. “However right now will not be the top of a journey to signal this settlement. It’s the start of a journey that may final for years to return.”
U.S. Air Drive Lt. Gen. Stacey T. Hawkins, Air Drive Sustainment Heart commander, and Dr. Ruth Ray Jackson, Langston College interim president signal official paperwork establishing an academic partnership settlement between the 2 entities Sept. 25. (U.S. Air Drive photograph by Grady Epperly)
